Sam Caldwell
Biographical information
Date of death:	2507
Physical information
Gender:	Male
Equipment(s):	RIG
Hair:	Black
Eyes:	Brown
Chronological and political information
Notable facts:	Extraction Team Member One of the earliest cases of extreme dementia resulting in excessive violence Lexine Murdoch's boyfriend.
Affiliation:	CEC
[Source]

"That look in his eyes... Reminded me of a kid that went crazy last week. He was just an engineer, but something in him snapped."

—Nathan McNeill^[1]

Sam Caldwell was an engineer^[1] on Aegis VII and one of those assigned to the Extraction Dig Team.^[2]

BiographyEdit

Little is known about Sam Caldwell's early life, though he eventually joined the Concordance Extraction Corporation. At some point in his career with C.E.C., Caldwell was assigned to Aegis 7, where he met and began a relationship with Lexine Murdoch.

ExtractionEdit

"That thing's gotta be man-made..."

—Caldwell^[2]

Caldwell was called upon to aid in the excavation of the Red Marker. When the team moved the Marker from its pedestal, it flashed brightly and emitted a powerful, multiple-frequency wave.^[3] This powerful emission disrupted some of the Colony's equipment, deactivating life support systems, impairing communications, and damaging one of the gravity tethers. Caldwell's crew^{[note 1]} separated from the Extraction Team to repair the Tether^{[note 2]}; en route, they encountered several miners and engineers who were in a highly violent state of dementia. They were forced to kill several of the fellow colonists, some of whom they knew, like Zochenko.

As they descend into the Megavent, Sam begins to see strange Unitology-related script appearing before him only to disappear; he also begins to hear voices, including that of his girlfriend, Lexine.^{[note 3]} Upon reaching the desired level, Sterling separates from the crew to assist someone he hears; Caldwell and Egan continue towards Gravity Tether 16.^[2] Egan showed signs of dementia, eventually attacking Sam, which forced Caldwell to shoot his friend. Caldwell reached the tether on his own and managed to repair it through the use of an appropriated Stasis Module.

Shortly thereafter, he managed to reach Lexine via the colony's somewhat less impaired communications system. When informed that the Colony's life support systems were inactive, Caldwell located and successfully reactivated it. Afterward, Sam Caldwell made his way towards the lift, fighting through numerous attackers. Near the lift platform, however, Caldwell had a chilling revelation after taking down a sole attacker who, in a moment of clarity, Sam recognized as Sterling.

"Is this even real? ...No, they're not real!"

—Sam Caldwell^[2]

He continued to fight his way through, desperate to reach Lexine. He moved towards the descending lift, only to see more deranged attackers; before he could take any action, however, one of them shot him. Fatally injured, Caldwell saw them advance...only to resolve into P-Sec officers.

"Why'd you do it, son? All these people never did anything to hurt you."

—Detective McNeill^[2]

Shortly after learning that he had been in a state of hallucination, and had killed his entire team, Sam Caldwell died of his injuries.

TriviaEdit

• Caldwell was Lexine Murdoch's boyfriend.
• Of all the four playable characters in the game, he is the only one that never faced a Necromorph, only illusions.
• Caldwell seems to speak in different accents during his conversations with Lexine.
• Although the process by which someone suffers from the Red Marker's effects are not explicitly detailed, Sam seemed to suffer the full effect of the Marker instantaneously, being stunned by a flash of symbols right before entering the Megavents to repair the gravity tether. It was only after then that Sam began hallucinating the attacks, provided that the attacks on Caldwell, Sterling, and Egan prior to entering the corridors to the Megavents, were by other crazed miners, and not hallucinations.
• Sam's team hadn't been affected by the Red Marker as excessively, but when Egen attacked, Sam was hallucinating and he had actually gone "insane" from the Red Marker's effects, thus murdering his sane team members.
• The name "Caldwell" may be a reference to the book "Who Goes There?", in which there is a character named Bart Caldwell. Also, the creature in it was later revised in "The Thing" which was a source of inspiration for the Necromorphs.
• He may also be named after [Samuel H. Caldwell]. Caldwell was an electrical engineer, an early pioneer in the development of analog computers, and later Digital computers as well.

GalleryEdit

Sam Caldwell's file, as seen in Chapter 2.

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AppearancesEdit

• Dead Space: Extraction

NotesEdit

1. ↑ The Extraction Dig Team appears to have been made from two smaller crews: one crew consisting of Sterling, Sam Caldwell, and Egan, and the other consisting of Cooper, Banks, and Bear. Cooper and Sterling appear to be crew leaders, respectively.
2. ↑ Caldwell was notified of the life support problems by Lexine Murdoch after he repaired the gravity tether.
3. ↑ It is unknown exactly when Sam Caldwell entered a state of heightened delusion; therefore, it is currently unknown how many of his "attackers" were really attacking him, or if they were even anything more than illusions.

SourcesEdit